Monday, March 30, 2009

All domestic and stuff

This weekend, Shan I got all domestic and grown up.

On Saturday we had breakfast at the markets with Cassie and Melina and then wandered around buying gorgeous fruits and vegies. I'm a total sucker for two things at the markets - 1. the spruikers! you yell at me, I'll buy your fruit. 2. All the babies! Going to the markets is one thing I can't wait to do with Shanny and our baby Shazannes when they come along so I get totallty clucky when we see all the families with their tiny people.

When we went home we hired a carpet cleaner to clean our loungeroom. After parties and bbqs and life, it was looking grotty. We didn't realise just how bad it was until we rolled up the rug and there was a square on the floor. It looks nice now, pretty even.

Sunday we spent all day with our families. We hung out with my ma and sisters and my little nephews for breakfast. We hadn't seen them in a couple of months so I was super excited to see my guys. Koen and Jimmy were in fine form, singing at the top of their lungs while playing with play-doh. and Dal showed off his super strength by flying on my sister's legs.

Koen giving himself a head massage.

Doe-eyed Jimmy
He's SO adorable!
Koen and Jimmy playing with Play-Doh

Dallin flying high

Koen gives it a go
Then it was Hollie's turn... it didn't work so well.
To end the day we went to Shan's aunt's house for lunch with her ma and dad. They're all really cool to hang out with and they always make too much food. Her aunt was awesome and loaned us like 9 Miami Ink and LA Ink DVD's. WOOOOO!

Now it's Monday morning and only 24 hours until we're getting ready for the new tattoos. We bought creams last night and we've been watching LA Ink non-stop. Next time we blog we'll post the pics. 'til tomorrow....

Sunday, March 29, 2009

4 year old Koen: "chicken tastes like chicken"

Mar 29: SuperZanneMar 28: fruit and vege shopping at the Rocklea Markets. the dude on the bottom right is one of many spruikers shouting at us to buy stuff - those guys are funny! we love visiting the Rocklea Markets with our friends Cassie and Milena. i have a feeling Zanne and Cassie might enjoy the markets more for the cute babies than the veges though
Mar 27: a drunken self portrait
Shan

Friday, March 27, 2009

what to do, what to do…

Zanne and I have been planning an August relocation to Vancouver. Why Vancouver? Because I lived there a few years ago (and loved it!) and always planned to return. When Zanne and I met, we had both recently returned from travelling. Zanne lived in London for 18 months and when I shared my Vancouver plans she noted North America was next on her “to do” list; Vancouver became a plan for us both. This week though Zanne has voiced some concerns about the Vancouver plan, which is a totally reasonable thing to do, but as a result I can’t help question whether my enthusiasm for Vancouver has pressured Zanne to assume my dream? This would be bad.

Lately, it would seem a combination of the current economy and the place we are at in our lives and our relationship have inspired feelings of “settling down” (buying a home and having a family ie living the Australian Dream). Which brings me to Zanne's said concerns. Her concerns are legitimate: at the moment we each have secure, reasonably paid jobs (in fact Zanne has a real career!), we have a car, we have savings, we have our family and friends close by and we could be in a great position in two or three years to buy a home and start a family. We are safe in Brisbane.

In comparison, Vancouver is a big risk: we might have problems getting jobs, housing, visas, making friends, etc – all common problems associated with travelling. We could honestly end up back in Brisbane without any savings or a car or a home and have to start from scratch again. Alternatively, Vancouver could be our greatest adventure! And, for some reason, I have an overwhelmingly feeling that we're going to be ok. Feelings aren’t facts though, and if we were to return to Brisbane with nothing we would be even more years away from a home and family. This, also, would be bad.

The bottom line for me is: I would regret us not going to Vancouver. I can see us happy there. I can see us there for years, having children there even. Vancouver is a beautiful city, I connect with its vibe and its people, and I know Zanne will too. In addition, we would have access to civil rights in Canada that we don’t have here (eg. marriage, parenting). My year in Vancouver was one of my best, but (in the spirit of this blog full of questions) what if Vancouver isn’t as great the second time round? Again, bad. My counter argument could be that we’re young and still have time to mess up and bounce back again, but I know this won’t fly with Zanne. My compromise is, a month in Vancouver before returning to Brisbane for the home and family.

So anyways, Zanne came home last night and said she was done with worrying, she doesn’t want to “be safe”, she wants the Vancouver plan. I can’t help wonder now though: are we doing the right thing? Only time will tell I suppose.

Shan

Thursday, March 26, 2009

free to choose my own adventure

Mar 26: jam drops! i have wonderful childhood memories of baking jam drops with my Ma. i loved making a hole in the cookie dough with my thumb... i wonder when Ma stopped baking jam drops and started buying packaged versions like these? i guess at some point my siblings and i stopped offering up our thumbs...
Mar 25: a shot of Zanne and her work peeps. I loves it - it looks like Zanne (in the white shirt) owns the company!
Mar 24: "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah!"
Mar 23: the cheerful little men of Happy High Herbs on Ann St
Shan

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

I had a dream...

Below is a pictorial representation of a dream I had last night ---->


On the left is me.

On the right is 66 year old grandmother and Australian Governor General, Quentin Bryce.

In the dream we got into a fisticuff (after she morphed from my boss). Punches were thrown, round-house kicks were attempted and tea cups were used to glass each other. She put up a good fight.

If anyone knows how to decipher dreams please tell me what it all means. If it means we're about to come into a large sum of money that would be super.

UPDATE: OK it seems some people are thinking I was beating up an old lady in my dream when in reality (my dream) she was a spy of some sort and was totally kicking my ass! Which is why I had to bring out the tea cups.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Brisbane Ink

Shan and I will both be sporting new ink this time next week. We just had a catch up with the tattooist who unveiled Shan's design and she's totally in love with it. The floral arrangement will cover her right arm from shoulder to elbow with a mix of dark and pastel colours. It's going to look awesome but hurt like a mo-fo. She even joked with Tim about how much the inside of her arm is going to hurt and he just smiled and nodded. We like that he's keeping it real.

Mine will only take about half an hour but he's booked Shan in for six hours straight. Plus a follow up session in case he can't finish it in one day. I'm taking the whole day off to hold her hand and hopefully keep her mind off it as much as I can. It's gonna suck to see her in so much pain but it's going to look awesome when it's done.

7 sleeps and counting.

Monday, March 23, 2009

love is..

Love is...


...when making a costume for a party with you is more fun than the actual party. 


...your arms wrapped around me in bed even though I've got wet hair from the shower and I can't stop sniffling.  


...how you say 'I love you' during the night but have no memory of it the next day.  


...how we think matching tattoos are kinda lame on everyone except us.


...all of those "I was just thinking that!" moments that remind me just how perfect you are for me. 


...when we're laying back-to-back in bed and my foot finds yours reassuring me that you're still close by. 


...looking forward to 6.30am when I get to wake you up and see you smile at me. 

Sunday, March 22, 2009

camp shazanne

Zanne is sick with a headcold, poor chook. As is family tradition for such situations, we set up camp on the couch for the weekend: pillows and blankets were transported from our bed, a box of tissues, together with a glass of juice and bottle of water, were placed within Zanne's reach, and, most importantly, the tv was on a continuous Will & Grace loop.

I felt a dead ringer for my Mum as I topped up Zanne's juice glass and said things like: "how about you take a nice, hot shower?" and "here, take some medicine before you go to sleep". Isn't it funny how we become like our Mums? I for one am grateful it's finally happening, and it's times like these that I reflect again on my luck for having such a kind, gentle, selfless mother who always topped up my juice glass, even when I wasn't sick.

Get well soon my love.

Shan

her skin is cinnamon

A playlist to cheer my poor, sick love:


The Blow – Parentheses

The Long Winters – Cinnamon

Ben Folds Five – The Luckiest

Bright Eyes – The first day of my life

Hellogoodbye – Baby, it’s fact

Josh Pyke – Sew my name

Soko – Take my heart

Spinnerette – Ghetto love

Weezer – Suzanne

Kate Miller-Heidke – Space they cannot touch


Shan

one couch, many cuddles

Mar 22: Michael and Philip at our regular breakfast spot, Fat Boys. Zanne was feeling perky enough post-cold and flu medication to sit through breakfast with us
Mar 21: my poor baby is "siiiiiiiiiiick"
Mar 20: Rufus the Wonder Dog, child of Cassie and Milena
Mar 19: Empire Records buttons for my brothers
Shan

Friday, March 20, 2009

I don’t like Mondays

Today is Friday and I’m relieved. Relieved because I’m looking forward to two happy days at home with my love; relieved because we’re another week closer to our Vancouver relocation (155 days to go!). The thing is, I don’t like my job much. At first the lack of challenge was a novelty, but now it has become a challenge in its own right! I’m bored and frustrated. Previously I was a legal secretary for 3 lawyers and had control of my own workload, which included dealing with multiple,simultaneous deadlines and producing complex legal documents, etc… I’m lucky if I write one letter a day here. And if I were to write a letter it would be after one of my Officers explained their self-explanatory handwritten notes to my Coordinator who then explained them to me. Everything is convoluted and inefficient here. Gah. I shouldn’t complain though, I’m well paid and my job is secure. Damn the current economic climate! I was made redundant from said previous job at the end of last year and as a result, job security currently ranks higher than job satisfaction for me - which doesn't mean I won't whinge about my lack of job satisfaction!

So anyways, to pass the time while I’m at work (and to help pretend that I’m not at work!) I do a lot of daydreaming. I daydream about Zanne: hanging out with, planning secret dates for, moving to Vancouver with, marrying, having babies with, owning a home with – you get the idea. I daydream about screen printing and establishing our business and writing a film and finishing my degree and my fabulous future jobs and word plays and my family and being a part of a book club and winning the lottery and Vancouver (always Vancouver!). I read the news and study and do research and complete the weekly tasks for each of my uni subjects. I listen to music and google lyrics and write blogs… I do all of this daydreaming, etc and still manage to complete my work. I’d like to say this is due to my wonderful ability to multi-task, but really it’s just an indication of how light my workload is.

Shan

PS.

The above brings to mind an Ani Difranco lyric: “my distraction is my defense against this lack of inspiration”.

Just quietly, I anticipate the other side of the weekend will bring a different lyric to mind: “Tell me Why? I don’t like Mondays”.

That goes without saying

When I turn iTunes on in the morning, hit play and the shuffle throws up a song I love it makes me feel like the day is going to be alright.


First song of today was Call it Off by Tegan and Sara. They are, for me, all the things I dream about Canada. And now i will think about Vancouver all day.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

munching away

Mar 18: Zanne before and during her guest spot on 4zzz radio's dykes on mykes program - she's a radio star!
Mar 17: calamari and chips at the beach after a long day at work - oh yeah!
Shan

as Pink said..

Sometimes I like to do things 'because I can'.

This morning I'm having a red Slurpee and a Cadbury's Creme Egg for breakfast, because I can.

Being a grown-up rocks!

A face for radio

This evening, from about 8pm EST, I will make my radio debut on community radio station 4ZZZ. I will be chatting to the girls at Dykes on Mykes about the upcoming Queens Birthday Community Awards which I'm helping put together. I'm not nervous now, but you know how nervousness always creeps up on you just as you open your mouth to speak and you promptly forget every intelligent thing you had prepared to say? Fingers and toes this doesn't happen tonight. Luckily my lovely girlfriend will be coming along to secretly hold my hand under the table.

Monday, March 16, 2009

wire, wire pants on fire

Mar 16: my favourite lollies (strawberries and cream) live next to Zanne's favourite (gummy bears) at the Night Owl. I know I'm a dork .
Mar 15: a day of screen printing: our friend's Mum is an Independent in next week's State Election. we printed shirts for her and her "team". oh how I love the screen printing!
Mar 14: I am the fever to Zanne's disco (ball) at Naomi's housewarming
Mar 13: Ani Difranco may have built an empire out of car tyres and chicken wire but we built a disco ball out of, well, chicken wire
Mar 12: Brunswick Street is Made Strange
Shan

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Cindy City

Knowing my love of Brisbane and Augusten Burroughs, my friend Richard forwarded to me the following link which perfectly talks of our city just the way I see it.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25125686-5012694,00.html

"Brisbane is Cindy Crawford sitting on the porch reading a book while plump older sister Sydney tap-dances on the sidewalk in a leotard that’s too tight, hoping a talent agent drives by. Melbourne is the moody, black-haired sister lurking behind the tree with her volume of Sylvia Plath poems, making smartarse notes in her notebook and unable to decide which is worse: beauty or ambition."

Thursday, March 12, 2009

and they could never tear us apart

My brother was married last weekend (and it has taken me all week to sit down and write about it! I blame work and uni but I’ll save that post for another day). Kris is the first of us to be married; it was exciting and odd at the same time. Odd mostly because marriage is for grown ups. Odd also because the Bride’s family outnumbered us by 12 tables to 1.

I’m so proud of Kris, he went through some tough times for a while there and it is lovely to see him now happy and living life on his terms. He is a real bloke, our Kris: a bloke excited by the Groomsmen’s converse high tops and the classic wedding car, a bloke who forgets to thank his new wife in his wedding speech!

For me, it was a day for dress ups and spending time with my family and my brothers’ friends. My brothers share the same group of friends, I haven’t seen many of them for years (I was travelling, and they now spend their time in places other than my Mum’s house) and it was great to catch up with the adult versions of those crazy kids.

The highlight though was my Mum and her speech… My Mum was anxious for weeks over that speech but she nailed it! She almost broke down part-way through, her hands started shaking and the tears almost came, but she got through it and it was, by far, the speech of the night. Woohoo!

The runner-up highlight was my grandparents being so incredibly accepting of Zanne and I (without explanation even!). Not to mention my brothers’ friends exclaiming “your sister’s Mrs is hot!”.

I have to admit though, while I enjoyed Kris’s wedding, I found myself thinking “if this were my wedding…”. There was a time when I would never have considered a wedding of my own, but that was before I was madly in love *blush*. And speaking of Zanne… We had responsibility of our nephew Noah on the day (his parents were part of the wedding party), and I swear every time I looked across the room at Zanne and Noah talking together, or playing in the grass, or dancing, or doing whatever, my heart melted a little bit more. Does anyone else hear Lionel Richie? He’s singing “Endless Love”. No? It must be just me.

Congratulations to Kris and Shana: “may you grow old together, sharing the same pillow”.

Shan





Sulky McSulk

I’m at work and I’m sulking. I’m sulking because my Section has just been “shuffled” and now I’m working for the only two high maintenance, micro managing Officers of the group. I’ve been totally shafted – damn being the new kid! My colleague, who previously was working for one of said Officers, is so happy with the new arrangement she is literally bouncing about the place. I kinda wanna punch her. I know I can cope with a greater workload/more complex working arrangement but that doesn’t make it fair right? Grr!

Shan

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

bless you all for turning my life into a Cher song

Mar 11: an after-dinner slurpie
Mar 10: Wickham Street runs through China Town and the Valley, it is also the name of a local gay pub - it's our hood!
Mar 9: the Story Bridge, Brisbane
Shan

May I have 10 more hours in my day please?

Life is busy at the moment. Like CRAZY busy. How can things change so quickly? Work has gone from painfully slow to excruciatingly hectic which is great but it means that I'm finding myself with very little energy for other things. And those other things - the Brisbane Pride Festival, the Queens Birthday Community Awards and now my Masters - aren't getting the attention they deserve. I just want like 4 more hours each day, that's it. It's not too much to ask is it?!

doll parts

I went to the Valley and I saw... a bike-rider wearing a black tee shirt that had dolls' limbs attached to it, like all over. Who does that?

Shan

Sunday, March 8, 2009

my joy accordingly is unconfined

Mar 8: back home in the Valley after a weekend in the burbs.
even though it's blurry, I quite like this photo
Mar 7: our nephew Noah at my brother's wedding
Shan

I'm no rocket surgeon

Mar 6: wearing my Grandad's skull-of-cow-toggle-thingy
Mar 5: Zanne literally tossed the salad - oops!
Shan

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

I like doing boring stuff with you

Mar 4: my very first pair of heels, purchased for my brother's wedding this Saturday. they're so lovely and shiny *blush*. a dress and heels - even I won't recognise me!
Mar 3: my love is super cute in overalls
Mar 2: Zanne's boss brought us this painting while she was traveling in Asia recently. Apparently Shazanne means "Healer. Sturdy. Lady" in Mandarin
Shan

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Page 9 girl

I got my first by-line! For the first time in 6 years, something I've written has appeared in a publication with my name next to it. Working in PR I've become accustomed to seeing my words appear in the media with no name or someone elses name attached to them. Which is fine, it's what we do, and in fact it's actually quite the compliment to see a journalist put their name next to something I've written.

As a member of the Brisbane Pride Festival organising committee, I've been assigned the task of coordinating this year's Queens Birthday Community Awards. This includes all of the promotions and PR and so when I wrote a press release for Q News last week I expected that, as usual, the story would appear with no name. But here it is :)



I have to say.. I quite enjoy seeing my name in print!

Expose to sunlight for 45 seconds.

On Friday morning, Shan and I went to a local screen printing supply shop to find out what we were doing wrong with our screen printing. No matter what we tried we just couldn't seem to get the process right for the new emulsion technique we were trying.

I came across this company a few weeks ago when I was looking for a Valentine's surprise for Shan. I found a company who did screen printing lessons in Brisbane, but only the basic, stencil technique. However she was very lovely and pointed me in the direction of a company that she thought could help.

Turns out the guys at the Gabba Screen Printing Supplies place are totally awesome! We got there at 9am and he took us through the entire process from start to finish, showing us each step we could be getting wrong, and answered all of our questions no matter how simple or silly we thought they were. He spent an hour and a half with us and even gave us printouts of descriptions on how to build the best light boxes. We will definitely be going back there for all of our suplies from now on.

Shan listens intently...
The cutest part of the demonstration was how much Shan kept smiling through the whole thing. She doesn't get too overly excited about many things in front of strangers but her excitement was totally infectious and we went home really pumped knowing our t-shirt empire dream was back on track to becoming a reality.

Monday, March 2, 2009

you have to break up with some lesbians more than once

So today both of our respective exes contacted us. Interesting. I think we brought it on ourselves cos yesterday we were looking through old photos. My ex emailed me from the other side of the world basically to ask my reasons for not keeping in touch. Um, really? I know it has been years but I seem to remember someone being unfaithful and it wasn't me. Just sayin'.

Weird.

Now where's my vodka and cranberry?

Shan

Sunday, March 1, 2009

zippity do da

Mar 1: at the grocery store
Feb 28: a secret date: rollerskating
Feb 27: these kids may have had rainbow clothing, jazz hands, hula hoops and more, but they were the most aloof buskers I've ever seen! not once did they smile or act in any way interested. but their out-of-ordinary approach didn't bother the crowd - they were making a killing! they had us in stitches, little weirdos. Shan

Time in Vancouver:

 
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